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John Erskine expressed remorse Monday about giving Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds a concussion on Friday night, though the Washington Capitals defenseman did not agree with NHL vice president of player safety Brendan Shanahan’s assertion that he delivered a “reckless elbow” to the head.

“I don’t think it was a reckless play or a reckless elbow,” Erskine said. “I wasn’t flying down the ice a hundred miles an hour with my elbow up in the air. That’s what [Shanahan] called it, and I gotta live with it.”

The 32-year-old defenseman was suspended three games for the play.

“Well, I’m not happy with the suspension. I think [Shanahan] did what he had to do,” Erskine said. “It was more like a reflex thing, my elbow kind of came up at the last second. I wasn’t targeting his head or trying to injure him. It was a quick play that happened.”

Shanahan used the word “reckless” to describe the hit, both during Erskine’s hearing and on the video announcing the suspension.

Erskine reached out to Simmonds over the weekend. The Flyers forward suffered a concussion on the play.

“I sent him a text, kind of apologized for it and hope he gets in the lineup soon and feels better,” Erskine said.

Coach Adam Oates described Erskine on Saturday as a “clean player.” The rugged, 6-foot-4 defenseman was hoping his reputation as tough but not dirty would help his case when Shanahan was reviewing the elbow.

“I’m going on my 11th year and I haven’t been suspended,” he said. “I’ve been fined once, I think. I thought that would come into a factor more, but Shanahan did what he had to do and I gotta accept it.”

And Erskine must accept missing three games after playing well in his first five of the season.

“I was kind of on a roll there, I was getting minutes, getting lots of ice time,” said Erskine, who even scored a goal Jan. 27 vs. the Buffalo Sabres. “I don’t know, I was having fun out there. It came at a bad timing, but I’ll live with it and get back in on hopefully Saturday.”

Erskine was expecting fewer than three games for the elbow. But there is an advantage to the compressed schedule.

“The good thing about this is that we have so many games so quickly, so it’s not like I’m on the shelf for a week and a half or two weeks,” Erskine said. “I think it’ll be a quick five days or so and I’ll get right back at it.”

Ward basks in Ravens’ win

Right wing Joel Ward was all smiles in the locker room Monday, and that had nothing to do with the loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins or his performance. He was more than eager to talk about his Baltimore Ravens winning the Super Bowl over the San Francisco 49ers.

Ward got to watch with some teammates at center Mike Ribeiro’s place.

“It was a good game that came right down to the end, and I think there was the fact that a lot of guys wanted to see me lose because I was decked out in my Ravens gear up head to toe,” Ward said.

The right wing who became a Ravens fan because of Ray Lewis wore the linebacker’s No. 52 jersey, a hat and scarf during the game. And after Baltimore jumped out to a big lead, Ward didn’t want to jinx anything.

“I literally sat in the same seat for the whole game and even with the power outage I still didn’t move,” he said. “But I knew that there was going to be a 49ers wave coming on and I was just hoping that the guys would bear with it, but you can tell, it was too good to be to be true for the score to have stayed [a blowout] all game. But it was good.”

Ice chips

• Oates said he was “still deciding” on a goaltender for Tuesday night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Michal Neuvirth seems like the probable starter after Braden Holtby gave up five goals on the first 14 shots Sunday. But after the Caps coach talked about rallying around Holtby after the Penguins loss, nothing would be surprising.

• Oates had no update on forward Brooks Laich, who has no timetable to return from a groin injury.